914 carburetor conversions

[WillyDaP]

Good luck Putsch, I can only offer similar help offered by blueline, which means absolutely nothing. Fortunately we do have some technical wizards on here and occasionally one has to wait for one of them to come up for air. Rumor is some practically sleep in their garages and you will find, hanging around here, that is quite close to the truth for some.

[J-Dub]

@914PUTSCH
I see you are already on the hunt for a nice way to add an O2 sensor. Nice!
On my beetle it is quite easy as I have an aftermarket merged header with a great spot for a bung after the collector flange. I run the wires into the car through the hole where the main battery cable goes to the starter, then up next to the seat into a short term gauge holder I fashioned out of an old military flashlight. I only can find one photo at the moment....

[914PUTSCH]

@914PUTSCH
I see you are already on the hunt for a nice way to add an O2 sensor. Nice!
On my beetle it is quite easy as I have an aftermarket merged header with a great spot for a bung after the collector flange. I run the wires into the car through the hole where the main battery cable goes to the starter, then up next to the seat into a short term gauge holder I fashioned out of an old military flashlight. I only can find one photo at the moment....

Yes, those suggestions were quite good! Better than anything I have gotten on the other venues (SAMBA, 914WORLD, RENNLIST, et al), in fact! Thanks for providing an illustration of your cockpit set-up. I guess all TRUE Porsche enthusiasts have a sweet little VeeDub lurking some where in the stable, eh? Mine is an orange '73 Std. Beetle named 'Brummel'. Yours (a '55, perhaps?) looks like it's gotten lots of (well-deserved) TLC, too! Sort of makes me hanker for a good Bavarian beer and a plate of Kraut mit Kartofeln und Schnitzel!

[J-Dub]

It is a 57, great eye! I have not worked on a 914 in years and don't really remember how wiring could be routed most easily so hopefully my explanation can provide you some inspiration. I might skip the schnitzel but would join you for a beer!

The main take away here is there are three circuits and make sure you know which one you are going after.

Carb sync is critical for right off the line smoothness and performance. Some of the cheap linkage makes this quite difficult to achieve.

Make sure your ignition is in good condition and making a hot white/blue spark, not a weak orange color spark.

Vee Dub, Porsche.. yea they go together like pees and carrots!

[914PUTSCH]

It is a 57, great eye! I have not worked on a 914 in years and don't really remember how wiring could be routed most easily so hopefully my explanation can provide you some inspiration. I might skip the schnitzel but would join you for a beer!

The main take away here is there are three circuits and make sure you know which one you are going after.

Carb sync is critical for right off the line smoothness and performance. Some of the cheap linkage makes this quite difficult to achieve.

Make sure your ignition is in good condition and making a hot white/blue spark, not a weak orange color spark.

Vee Dub, Porsche.. yea they go together like pees and carrots!

When it comes to 'inspiration', I'm like a lineman on an opposing American football team intercepting the ball and streaking out for his goal post (all 300 pounds of him!). Actually, I'm a bit faster than that (at a mere 158 pounds), but inspiration to innovate and explore is the name of the game for me, J-Dub! Thanks for the further insights into the mysteries (and miseries) of carburation. I have a Bosch 'blue' coil and Jez's plugs and wires are all new, high-perf grade, so I should have a hot enough spark to shock me out of several years of life, in an uninsulated moment! [I would have said, perhaps, that VWs and Porsche go together like pees and prostates, LoL, but only because I am now old enough to know entirely too much about the latter... ] By the way, Scotsman Robert McGowen, in his excellent 2019 book 'PORSCHE 911: THE PRACTICALLY FREE SUPERCAR', has some interesting things to say about the ancestral links between the Porsche 914 and the beautiful Cayman! I'm going to review that book shortly, if I can just refrain from getting side-tracked.

[J-Dub]

I have been calling the 914 the original Cayman or the other way around(depending on the context) around for years.

[Darkbeer]

ah, the dying art of carburetor adjusting. Seriously, the folks that could, are literally dying off. SAD !!!! I think I saw a pretty decent video on You tube, about adjusting IDF's. TON's of 356 owners have converted their worn Solex's for Webers. The "best" ones are NLA, made in Italy, next best are the Spanish made ones...after that, I am not so sure of the original quality being replicated in Asia....???? I have Spain built IDF's, and, they are fairly easy to work on. You can pull out the idle circuit and make sure it is not clogged. You can mess with the mixture screw, and listen attentively, for the 'sweet spot'. It really is sort of magic...or blind luck... ALSO. be sure your linkage is opening the carbs exactly equally. Sloppy linkage can mimic 'carb problems'.

[914PUTSCH]

What was that famous line from Shakespeare's Richard III (Act 5)? Paraphrased, it would be "My Porsche! My Porsche! My kingdom for a good 'old school' mechanic!"

I think the problem so many of us have these days (one, at least, of many) is that modern life is getting to be such a non-stop, constant overload barrage of sensory demands and distractions that we can't give our undivided attention to dealing with such crucial issues as carb tubing fine points. That's certainly my case, although my situation is further complicated by being plagued with life-long ADD (as well as advancing senescence issues). I can't even relax enough these days to be able to fully focus on my machine's mechanical subtleties and enjoy dealing with them. [That's a "lovely" engine compartment in that 356, BTW. Nice set-up, Darkbeer.]